In recent weeks agents from the regime’s paramilitary Bassij have begun patrols, building inspections and spying against university students at various times of the day and particularly after midnight. The extent of the activities is such that over the recent evenings students at Tehran University dormitory have clashed repeatedly with Bassij agents as they wandered around and spied on students in residence halls or eavesdropped outside room doors and carried out monitoring inside dorm rooms.
Another method of controlling the students is the spreading out of residences and class locations and forcing the students to reside in smaller and farther apart buildings across the city and near suppressive centers. The move is meant to prevent or limit contact and coordination among the students as a means of launching protest acts. The main component of the regime’s plan is to reduce the number of students residing in Tehran University dormitory (in Amirabad area), which has acted as a major center for student protests in Tehran.
Students of the Open University (southern Tehran branch) Industries faculty have been relocated from the Technical College, which has also been one of the protest centers, and moved to the Humanities College building. Additionally, students from the Humanities building have been moved to a building in Keshavarz Boulevard. Both measures are part of the regime’s plan to control the student population.
These plans are directed by the so-called Seyyed al-Shohada Corps of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which plays a special role in student suppression. The main person responsible for executing the plans is Farhad Rahbar, the criminal president of the University of Tehran. Much despised among students, the 1999 brutal crackdown of students which turned to a tragedy is only one of the suppressive measures he has been responsible for.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
September 13, 2009